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Author Topic: left hand technique  (Read 5195 times)

5F6-A

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left hand technique
« on: January 05, 2008, 07:12:47 PM »
Hello,

First of all I'd like to wish you all a very happy and blessed 2008!

My question is this: I play guitar and I'm totally self-taught. I've always played with my thumb over the neck and the fingers rather angled on the fretboard. This is good for bending strings but my technique is defenitely suffering as I don't seem to make much progress and my playing sounds sloppy and noisy. I've noticed that players that play with their fingers parallel to frets get a much cleaner, controlled sound out of their guitars. I've tried that technique but it feels rather awkward and my arm aches as if it under some very tireying tension.
I think I should persevere but that means re-learning how to play altogether as none of my licks sound like they did before ( maybe that's a good thing ). Some stuff simply I cannot play. uhmmm
Anyway, I'd appreciate your take on the matter.
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maverickf1jockey

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left hand technique
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2008, 07:25:26 PM »
You can't bend with your thumb behind the neck.

You need to put your thumb behind the neck for speedy sections only. Other than that it's only preference so you don't need to relearn your style so much.

Buy Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar by Troy Stetina for exercises for those applications. You'll clean up your playing very quickly with that book.
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silentrage

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left hand technique
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2008, 10:54:09 PM »
Michael Angelo Batio's video speed kills demonstrates the ideal speed picking posture in the beginning.
And yeah, you can't bend that well with your thumb in the middle of the neck so You don't need to give up your old position completely.
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shaman

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left hand technique
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2008, 02:51:03 AM »
whatever you do, don't watch Doug Aldrich play...
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Sailor Charon

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left hand technique
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2008, 01:01:33 PM »
Me, I have the opposite problem. My thumb tends to drift round the back when I don't want it to...
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5F6-A

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left hand technique
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2008, 02:17:27 PM »
the thing is I'm not a metal / spped player at all. I'm not looking for speed but rahter clarity. I guess I'm going to try the thumb-behind-finger-parallel  approach and swift to a slightly more angled and slightly higher thumb for when I'm bending.

Wish me luck....
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"I now consider atheism to be brutal because it offers neither consolation nor liberty of any kind" Benjamin Constant in 1804
"Practice until you can hear the metronome grooving" Carol Kaye

Gizmo

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left hand technique
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2008, 09:34:48 AM »
after reading this post I searched for the speed mechanics book and came across the lick library series on the same website. I bought the "how to play faster dvd". Its really good and def helps playing quicker cleaner. Check it out
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